RIPOLL, SANTA MARIA di. - Benedictine abbey in the diocese of Vich in Spain.
The small town that grew up around the abbey is situated at 681 m. above sea level, at the confluence of the Fresser with the Ter. The church of S. M. di R. constitutes the most remarkable Romanesque monument of Catalonia. The church was consecrated by Abbot Daguino in 888 under the protection of Wilfred the Hairy; a new, larger construction was carried out in 935 and enlarged in 971. In 1031 Oliva razed the building to the ground in order to create a new one with five naves, the lesser ones separated by piers and columns; a great transept and two towers at the corners of the narthex as in the cathedral of Orléans; six secondary apses besides the main one. The side chapels were added in the 13th-14th centuries; the choir in the 16th century; the carved wooden altar is now in the diocesan Museum of Vich; in front of the high altar the floor is in mosaic. There are the statues of the Madonna of the Rosary by Llimona and that of St. Raymond of Peñafort by Valemitjana. On the outside the bell tower is 40 m. high. The admirable portal, entirely carved, of the 12th century has been called "the triumphal arch of Christianity." From the bottom upward there are represented the struggle of good and evil, rewards and punishments, biblical scenes such as the crossing of the Red Sea, the rain of manna, the rock of Horeb, the judgment of Solomon; then the elect, the triumph of Jesus Christ, among the Apostles, the angels and the elders of the Apocalypse; on the two jambs the apostles Peter and Paul. The cloister, one of the wonders of Romanesque art in Catalonia, has two stories of galleries (12th and 14th centuries) with 252 columns, the lower ones of violet jasper, the upper ones of granite with capitals in which are carved religious, mythological and popular scenes. The Museo S. Pedro contains a library rich in incunabula, a precious antiphonary and collections of ceramics, wrought iron, etc.
Bibliography12 works
Bibliot. Vatican. Reg. lat. 123 e Vat. lat. 5730. El Scriptorium de S. M. de R., in Catalonia monastica. 1 (1925), pp. 23-96; J. Lauro, Los gloriarios de R., in Anal. sacra Tarracon. 3 (1927), pp. 331-89; 4 (1928), pp. 271-341; E. Junyent, Le rouleau funéraire d'Oliva, abbé de Notre-Dame de R. et de St-Michel de Cuxa évêque de Vich, in Ann. du midi. 63 (1951), pp. 249-63.
Enrico Josi